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Hundreds of Innovators, One Location

In the U.S., we waste 63 million tons of food annually, at a cost of $218 billion. All of this wasted food consumes 20 percent of freshwater, fertilizer, cropland, and landfill space in America. The problem is enormous, but provides vast opportunities for ingenuity, creativity, and imagination in designing solutions, creating a flourishing food waste innovation scene. Food waste innovators create real benefits by reducing natural resource use, cutting greenhouse gas emissions, providing food to the hungry, and offering cost savings to consumers and businesses.

Explore the dynamic, expanding food waste innovation sector, broken down by food waste solution type, organizational status, and geographic reach. The ReFED Food Waste Innovator Database is a living compilation of commercial and nonprofit entities turning the food waste problem into an opportunity for economic, social, and environmental impacts. To get a perspective on the measureable impacts of the broader Innovator Categories, visit the ‘Related Solution(s)’ pages linked to each ‘Innovator Detail’ page.

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Navigating the Food Waste Innovator Database

Innovators are grouped by where they fall in the food recovery hierarchy (prevention, recovery, and recycling), and then placed into one of 13 Innovator Database categories.

View Prevention Categories

Prevention stops waste before it can occur, saving all the natural resources and other inputs embedded in food from going to waste as well.

Consumer Education

An organization that operates educational campaigns and/or offers educational resources that target wasted food, as well as tools and applications that enhance consumers' understanding of strategies to prevent food waste, including eating food before it spoils. View Innovators in this Category

Supply Chain and Operational Efficiency

An organization that offers tools, technologies, and systems that decrease food loss and waste in the supply chain or in food business operations. View Innovators in this Category

Shelf-Life Extension

An organization that offers any technology that physically enhances the ability of perishable food to remain fresh for longer, including food packaging. View Innovators in this Category

Secondary Marketplaces

An organization that operates a secondary marketplace that connects surplus food (food that would otherwise be wasted) to buyers. This includes brick-and-mortar entities, platforms to facilitate the purchase of surplus produce from farms, and platforms to facilitate the purchase of surplus food from restaurants. View Innovators in this Category

View Recovery Categories

Recovery captures edible food that would otherwise go to waste on farms, within the supply chain, or in consumer-facing businesses, and redistributes it to food insecure populations.

Donation Coordination

An organization or technology that enables any aspect of food donation, including matching food donors with food recipients in real-time, known as 'donation matching software'. View Innovators in this Category

Donation Transportation

Donated Food Processing

An organization that collects, stores, and processes donated food for distribution to food insecure populations. This includes community kitchen models and the value-added processing of donated food. View Innovators in this Category

View Recycling Categories

Recycling gives a higher purpose to the inedible food scraps that remain after preventing or recovering as much as possible, either as a direct source of nutrition for animals, or by converting the material into a value-added product.

Renewable Energy from Organics (Anaerobic Digestion)

An organization that generates renewable energy from organic material via anaerobic digestion, both on-site or at a centralized facility. View Innovators in this Category

On-Site Processing Solutions

Specialty Recycled Products

Any organization that is recycling inedible food waste into value-added products for consumers (e.g., dog treats; clothing) or other products like bioplastics. View Innovators in this Category

Related food waste databases

ReFED’s Food Waste Innovator Database focuses on food waste innovation, but there are a number of complementary tools that list additional organizations tackling food waste. We encourage you to check out these valuable resources, and let us know if there is something missing!

Searchable databases of composting facilities, anaerobic digestion facilities, and organics collection services across the U.S. and Canada.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that inclusion in ReFED’s Innovator Database does not represent an endorsement from ReFED: Rethink Food Waste or our funders. ReFED is ultimately responsible for determining which entities to include in the database, and reserves the right to deny entry without explanation. ReFED is not affiliated with any organization in its database, and all names, trademarks, copyrights, intellectual property, or any proprietary information associated with an organization is under their ownership.

ReFED is a multi-stakeholder nonprofit powered by an influential network of the nation’s leading business, nonprofit, foundation, and government leaders committed to scaling solutions to reducing U.S. food waste.